“I buy on the assumption that they could close the market the next day and not reopen it for five years.”
— Warren Buffett
One of the most important things investors can learn from Warren Buffett, is about how they approach their time horizon for an investment into a stock under consideration. Because immediately after buying shares of a given stock, investors will then be able to check on the day-to-day (and even minute-by-minute) market value. Some days the stock market will be up, other days down. These daily fluctuations can often distract from the long-term view. Today, we look at the result of a five year holding period for an investor who was considering F5 Networks, Inc. (NASD: FFIV) back in 2016, bought the stock, ignored the market’s ups and downs, and simply held through to today.
| Start date: | 05/06/2016 |
|
|||
| End date: | 05/05/2021 | ||||
| Start price/share: | $100.64 | ||||
| End price/share: | $180.71 | ||||
| Starting shares: | 99.36 | ||||
| Ending shares: | 99.36 | ||||
| Dividends reinvested/share: | $0.00 | ||||
| Total return: | 79.56% | ||||
| Average annual return: | 12.42% | ||||
| Starting investment: | $10,000.00 | ||||
| Ending investment: | $17,956.34 | ||||
As we can see, the five year investment result worked out quite well, with an annualized rate of return of 12.42%. This would have turned a $10K investment made 5 years ago into $17,956.34 today (as of 05/05/2021). On a total return basis, that’s a result of 79.56% (something to think about: how might FFIV shares perform over the next 5 years?). [These numbers were computed with the Dividend Channel DRIP Returns Calculator.]
One more piece of investment wisdom to leave you with:
“There’s a virtuous cycle when people have to defend challenges to their ideas. Any gaps in thinking or analysis become clear pretty quickly when smart people ask good, logical questions.” — Joel Greenblatt
